author
Hong Ge
284–364
A pioneering Daoist thinker, alchemist, physician, and writer, Ge Hong explored the search for longevity while trying to unite spiritual practice with practical ethics and medicine. His influential Baopuzi remains a vivid window into fourth-century Chinese philosophy, alchemy, and everyday life.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Ge Hong (葛洪), also known as Zhichuan and by the literary name Baopuzi, was a Chinese philosopher, physician, alchemist, and government official of the Eastern Jin dynasty. Born in 283 in Jurong, near present-day Nanjing, he came from a southern gentry family and studied both Confucian classics and Daoist traditions.
His best-known work, Baopuzi—“The Master Who Embraces Simplicity”—contains Inner Chapters on immortality, alchemy, medicine, and spiritual practice, alongside Outer Chapters on ethics, government, learning, and society. He also wrote medical and biographical works, including texts about immortals and emergency treatments. He spent his later years at Mount Luofu, where he continued writing and practicing alchemy; sources differ on whether he died in 343 or 363/364.